New Delhi The new mining Bill cleared by a group of ministers last week envisaging direct benefit to people from the minerals underneath the land they own, also has a provision for setting up a clutch of ultra mega mining plants (UMMPs) in the country.

As per the proposal, state governments will identify locations for large mines with respect to specific minerals such as iron ore, bauxite, chro

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has refused to issue forest clearance to the Mahan coal block in the Singrauli field of Madhya Pradesh, meant for the use of Essar and Hindalco power plants. However, this is not the final rejection. Instead, Mr. Ramesh has merely washed his hands of on the issue and passed the buck to a Group of Ministers to take a final decision.

New Delhi The petroleum ministry has on Thursday passed a fresh order asking Reliance Industries to fully meet the contracted gas supplies to priority consumers in sectors like fertiliser, LPG, power and city gas distribution in spite of the fall in gas production from the D6 field in the Krishna Godavari basin.